Despite signs of truce, Yadav and Bhushan offered to quit AAP posts

Aam Aadmi Party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who were in the middle of a bitter infighting, have offered to quit from all party posts provided reforms are brought in the AAP, source told HT.

In their letter to party chief Arvind Kejriwal, the two founding members have said they want to step down if their offer will help sort out the differences within the party, sources said.

Yadav and Bhushan have in their letter broadly sought transparency, more autonomy to state units, better volunteer engagement, action for lapses and regularisation of party panels.

AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan on Tuesday held a four-hour meeting with Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha over the letter. It is understood Yadav and Bhushan had allowed Kumar and Jha to represent them.

The meeting took place at Khetan’s residence, right before the party’s political affairs committee (PAC) on Tuesday night announced that the party would go national and expand its base, a key demand of Yadav that virtually split the party and pitted him and senior colleague Prashant Bhushan against the Kejriwal camp.

However, resigning from party posts does not mean leaving the party. The two have already been removed from the all-powerful PAC. They are still part of two wider bodies: national executive and national council.

Additionally, Bhushan is also part of AAP’s disciplinary committee. Yadav is also the chief spokesperson of the party.

AAP sources confirmed a letter from Yadav and Bhushan has reached Kejriwal, but refused to talk about its content.

PAC’s stand to go national seems to be in contrast to what Kejriwal had said barely a week ago.

“I fight a lot in my party when people say ‘we have won Delhi so we can win elsewhere too’. I am not Napoleon who has entered (the arena) to win. I want to change the system,” he had said in Bengaluru while undergoing naturotherapy.

A month after sweeping to power in Delhi, AAP’s senior leaders fought a very public and ugly war. Leaked letters, vitriolic tweets and expulsion of Yadav and Bhushan from the PAC for allegedly working against the party in Delhi elections and challenging Kejriwal’s leadership has shaken up the AAP.

PAC leaders went into a huddle at Kejriwal’s house in Ghaziabad on Tuesday, a day after four senior party leaders reached out to Yadav late on Monday.

Kejriwal had asked Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas, Singh and Ashish Khetan to reach out to Yadav and Bhushan, sources said.

Both sides said the meeting was positive and they would talk again. But the two on Tuesday chose to write to Kejriwal, offering to quit.